


The Boy Scout

by schittsgeek



Category: Schitt's Creek
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-12
Updated: 2019-12-12
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:20:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21769015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/schittsgeek/pseuds/schittsgeek
Summary: Prompt:David and Patrick hire a part time associate to help cover hours while they’re busy with wedding planning etc. The new hire is a kid from the local high school. Both David and Patrick bond/mentor the kid in their own way. I’d love a soft Patrick/teenager moment where Patrick is the first person the kid comes out to.
Relationships: Patrick Brewer/David Rose
Comments: 17
Kudos: 78
Collections: Schitt's Creek Open Fic Night 2.0





	The Boy Scout

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DaviditsPatrick](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaviditsPatrick/gifts).



~

Rose Apothecary seeks a new member of the team.

You will be hard working, curious, with an eye for detail.

Able to work Saturdays 10-4, with the possibility of other shifts.

Customer service experience preferred.

~

Ryan was excited. Maybe too excited. He didn’t have customer service experience, formally.

But he had volunteered as a Boy Scout Leader since aging out of being one himself. Was there any way he could claim wrangling rowdy, sticky boys was customer service experience?

He really REALLY wanted this job. Hell, he needed this job. Had this translated to his interview though? Nope. Of course not.

He had done his research. He had been to Rose Apothecary on average twice a week since it opened, at first just to grab things for his mom when she realised they were all out of garlic, or fresh herbs, or whatever. Ryan then got advice from Patrick, one of the owners, on various things from scarves for his grandma's birthday “I’m sorry my business partner is usually the one to go to for fashion advice but he’s taken the day off to go shopping with his sister” and lipbalms for his sister.

Then, when it started getting to the point where he was making excuses to himself as to why he kept needing to go into the store, it was for advice hiking trails, when Patrick exclaimed “I was a boy scout too!” Ryan''s chest felt tight at the thought of Patrick in the grey shirt and red neckerchief. Ryan smiled to himself, of course Patrick had been a boy scout, he always looked so neat and businesslike but you could tell he was the outdoorsy type. He seemed strong. Ryan had noticed his biceps when he'd chanced Rose Apothecary in the summer for ice, which turned out not to be something they were doing back then, but would try to implement next year, perhaps? Patrick had been hauling boxes of sparkling wine from a delivery truck out front, sporting just a white vest, his trademark blue shirt tied around his waist. I mean, anyone would have noticed his biceps in that moment right… suddenly it occured to Ryan that... maybe his instant liking of Patrick, or admiration of him and desire to work this part time job at Rose Apothecary, wasn't just a man crush, and maybe more like he had an actual legit crush on a man.

“Hey Ryan! Are you even listening to me?”

Ryan was broken from his reverie by the sound of his best friend yelling. Sadie was anything but a wallflower. Bubbly, bold and off to drama school next fall, it often felt like she was the main character in the drama that was Schitt’s Creek High School. Ryan was used to being her sidekick, but he needed to break away and had decided to go to a school out of the province. He would need to save up some money for college so a Saturday job at Rose Apothecary would be ideal, and it didn’t hurt that he had just had the realisation that he might be a little bit gay. 

"yeah Sadie, I just... I think I might apply for this job" he pointed at the poster in the window. She had been crouched down immersing herself in the scents of the different flowers on display outside the store, but looked up at him, accusatorily.

"What! Why?"

"Well, not everyone gets an allowance from their parents, or is talented enough to score a scholarship to an arts college, you know"

He managed to take a photo of the ad for reference, before she dragged him across the street, hoping to distract him with the smoothie of the day in Café Tropical.

~ ~

“I don’t know how I feel about turning the store over to some disruptive teen” David fumbled with boxes of body milk, clearly flustered.

“David, almost every single applicant for the job is under 20, and as much I love Ray, he isn’t a viable applicant. I know full well he doesn’t have time to do this on top of the rest of his businesses!” Patrick was stressed, leant over a pile of resumes on the counter.

They needed some help in the store, and to pass on some of the operational knowledge to someone other than Stevie or Alexis because quite frankly they were both unreliable in their own ways. Stevie point blank refused to cover weekend shifts as part of her hangover contingency plan, and Alexis was definitely no more useful or responsible than a 17 year old.

“Unless you want to give Alexis another chance?” Patrick asked, wearily.

David closed his eyes dramatically, shifting the boxes onto the display table distractedly, as body milks toppled onto the floor. He mentally revisited the last time they had entrusted to the store to his sister, when she had decided to rebrand the window displays while they stopped over in a hotel in Toronto after suit shopping for the wedding. He shuddered at the thought of recovering their Instagram account from another Alexis Rose takeover. “Fine” he flailed his arms, desperately.

“You shortlist the candidates, I will help interview them of course but I can’t take hearing you read out the highlights from one more earnest cover letter, and if anyone has used a quirky font on their resume, fast track them to the trash” David bent over to pick up the stray bottles of body milk that had rolled onto the floor. Patrick smiled, his soft eyes dancing over to meet David’s as he straightened out the display. Patrick did love it when David compromised.

~ ~

Patrick felt that Ryan seemed responsible, his experience working with kids as a volunteer scout leader made him more desirable than some of the more style conscious applicants David favoured. Ultimately something about each of them was ‘incorrect’ according to David, in particular Ryan’s choice to wear a orange polo shirt to his interview.

The ultimate goal in all of this was to find someone they could trust to help cover the store so that he and Patrick could take their long awaited honeymoon.

In the end he figured that if Patrick was comfortable trusting Ryan to assist with the rest of the Roses and Stevie while they did the rest of their wedding planning, then he would stop stalling and allow David to start also booking their honeymoon; a fortnight across Rome, Milan and Venice. David relented and slinked back to the store counter, placing his hands on Patrick's shoulders.

“I’m going to ignore the fact that Ryan blatently has a crush on you, and remind myself that this is about making things easier for us” he said, softly.

“Ryan seems very dependable and he did well in the sales task. Not all of us were disruptive teens you know, David.”

“you must’ve been a total riot” David’s sarcasm was thinly veiled over his enormous sense of relief. Getting to have more days off together was long overdue for the both of them.

“We really deserve this” David said, cupping Patrick’s stubbled cheeks in his big soft hands as Patrick sighed.

Despite them both being fiercely overprotective of the store, the lure of a honeymoon was too strong to pass up. One of Ronnie’s exes was a flight attendant and had wrangled them a good deal on the airfare, but they needed to book sooner rather than later. Things at the store were busier with each month that passed, in particular since they had launched their online shop with the help of Alexis. If they wanted to take the trip, they needed to get on and do it, or leaving the store for an extended time would become something they might never feel able to do.

“It’s got to be Ryan then” Patrick insisted. “His references are strong, I swear when I called up the reference for that girl you liked it was one of her friends putting a voice on”.

Patrick's wry smile got David every time, and he nodded. "Okay".

~ ~

In the end David grew to like Ryan. He had immediately enforced a dress code of black or white clothing only, "so as not to distract from the overall aesthetic of the store". Sometimes it felt like Ryan was like a tiny, shyer version of Ted. Innocent and over enthusiastic at times, but ultimately a sweet kid. He was really into the Rose Apothecary brand, although how much of that was an attempt to suck up to Patrick was questionable. He did however, turn out to be a dab hand at flat lays. Ryan was honest about his abilities, but kind of played his skills down. No wonder Patrick had liked him, thought David, he was competent but not a show off about it, a bit like Patrick himself.

Ryan did genuinely love his job, it didn’t even feel like work sometimes, creating content for their social media was fun and creative, and the customers were all super sweet. While he was still learning the ropes he would always work with either David or Patrick, if not both. David took a day off to look at potential wedding floral arrangements with his mother, and he got to hang out with Patrick who went through the finance processes but then suggested practising softball out front during the afternoon lull. One night Patrick was bonding with Mr Rose on the same night as a late opening, and Ryan served drinks and cleaned up while David entertained vendors and customers. 

At first Sadie was affronted that her Saturdays hanging with Ryan at Elmdale Mall were no more, but she became a big fan of the skincare range at Rose Apothecary and may have run through more testers of their new organic cosmetics range than Ryan would care to admit, when his probationary period was over. Sadie also took part in the festive open mic night and became well known to David and Patrick who began to share glances if she popped in more than once in a day on their watch. Ryan was professional though, he would speak to her but if another customer came in he would always prioritise their needs and he was excellent at ringing up purchases and bagging them up to David’s high aesthetic standards, in fact he was much neater at wrapping things in tissue paper than Patrick was.

Ryan's crush on Patrick hadn’t died down but he found he kind of admired a lot of things about David too, the more time he spent with him. David’s creative vision for the store and his personality was what set Rose Apothecary apart from your average general store. David found himself surprised at Ryan's taste level for putting together displays, his personal style still left something to be desired even when limited to monochrome. When it came to Christmas, David insisted that he and Patrick gift Ryan a pair of Black converse, with the proviso that he kept them clean for work. They looked suspiciously identical to David's own pair. 

~ ~

One night, David was wine tasting with Stevie under the guise of nailing down wine-pairings for the wedding breakfast, though Ryan had an inkling it was just an excuse for David to finish mid-afternoon and get drunk with his Maid of Honour. Patrick had asked Ryan to stay late and go through the cashing up process. It felt like the tenth time he had proven he could cash up properly, but he had learnt over the past few weeks that Patrick was quite neurotic about the finances of the store and Ryan was patient and happy to go through it every single time. The wedding was in about a fortnight and the honeymoon would take place a few weeks after that, so Patrick was going to let Ryan do a couple of Saturday shifts solo when Patrick and David were just a phonecall and a short drive away, as a test run.

“So is Sadie your plus one for the wedding?” asked Patrick politely.

“Yeah” said Ryan, “she’s my best friend, and she’s a great dancer”

“No need to justify the decision to me” Patrick replied kindly, “she seems fun”

Ryan let out a laugh, fun was definitely one word for being friends with her, there was never a dull moment. “yeah I’m sorry she comes around a lot while I’m on shift”

Patrick shook his head, clearing his calculator to run through the day's numbers for the third time. “Hey man, no problem, she’s helping to cover the cost of our wedding cake with all the lip tints she buys!”

Relieved, Ryan smiled. “Yeah she’s really into the products here”“

Come on, I don’t think they are the only thing she’s into” replied Patrick with a chuckle.

Ryan straightened up, distracted from the contents of the till he had been sorting into bags. “Uh, actually, I mean, I don’t know, I’m into… guys”

“Oh” said Patrick, quickly adding “I'm so sorry Ryan! I of all people shouldn’t assume these things given how much heteronormativity affected me when I was younger. I guess I just got the wrong idea about you two!”

Ryan averted his gaze shyly ”Well, I mean, Sadie doesn’t know that, or at least I’ve not told her… but she's like a sister to me, I hadn’t even told anyone until now”

“I’m so glad you felt you could tell me, I mean I’m honoured you did” Patrick was genuinely touched.

“Thanks Patrick, it’s not like I don’t want to tell anyone, I just, haven’t found the right moment, but I am glad I told you. I really appreciate you and David, seeing you both makes me feel so excited for the future, you know, I want to tell Sadie soon, and I am definitely going to, before the wedding I hope. ”

Patrick placed a reassuring hand on Ryan’s shoulder “no worries Ryan, I won’t say anything.”

Ryan knew that. “I mean I don’t mind if you tell David, but just let him know I’m not out at the moment.”

“I get it, David will too. There is no pressure to come out until you’re ready, at least that’s what a very wise person said to me before I came out. I’m just sorry I assumed you were straight”.

“Haha no worries, you were totally off the mark, but it feels good to get to say it out loud in a safe space.” Ryan cringed when he thought about how he had first applied for the role while crushing hard on Patrick, now he and David were more like mentors, uncles even. 

Patrick smiled, it felt good to know that Rose Apothecary could provide someone else with that feeling of security he had felt. Offering Ryan the position had given David and Patrick the chance to share a part of what they created with a kid who needed it more than they could have known. 

~~

When Ryan told Sadie, it turned out she had already known somehow, but she didn't let him know that until weeks later. He saw a different side of her in that moment. They were dancing on the dancefloor at David and Patrick's wedding. Ryan had on some smart leather brogues that David had pointed out online, and she had cute patent mary janes on making her even taller than usual, she already towered over him in flats.

Schitt's Creek Town Hall had been turned into an elaborate ballroom on a budget, Moira's eye for set design had created a parallel universe in which the rickety old building felt like a sleek 1920's dancehall. Sadie listened to him, hugged him, never second guessed him and waited for him to finish. When he had said everything he wanted to say he was desperate for her to just say anything at all. Gripped tightly in their embrace, she clutched him to her chest and just said 'I love you, Ryan, you are my best friend'. 

Ryan's eyes pricked with the best kind of tears, and as he blinked them away he saw Patrick across the room, holding David whose were eyes shut tight, a blissful expression on his face as they swayed to the Barbara Lewis number. He felt immense gratitude for the moment, and the people around him.

Patrick noticed him and winked, knowingly. 

~~


End file.
